Firefighting grants are finished, despite rumors

As I get older, FEMA grant season reminds me of summers in Pennsylvania. I wait for months for summer to happen, and then before I know it, it is over.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it is that time of year again. Yes, summer is over in Pennsylvania and Punxsutawney Phil will soon settle in for his long winter nap.

Even more importantly to those of us in the emergency services field, another FEMA grant cycle has come to an end.

You are likely hearing the same rumors that I have heard for the past few days: "There are going to be two more weeks of award announcements." I heard this twice in the past week — once from a vendor and once from the president of a fire department.

Sorry, but like a number of other rumors there is no truth to it.

There maybe a few more individual announcements. These will be either departments that have current offers and have not yet responded or departments that are next in line to receive awards for noncompliant departments that have received award offers.

All awards have been offered for all fiscal year 2014 programs including AFG, SAFER and FP&S. Statutorily, FY2014 grant funds had to be obligated prior to the end of the fiscal year, which was Sept. 30, 2015.

Why the delay
There are departments out there that have not received an award or a rejection letter from FEMA for their 2014 application. As I understand it, it is very possible that not all of the rejection notifications have been sent out. This is due to FEMA working with a reduced staff, but those notices should be going out soon.

For those departments that have not heard anything, contact the AFG program office for confirmation of your applications status. There are some applications that have been awarded but not yet accepted by the grantee.

To be safe, departments that do not know the status of their application should check their FEMA account, their mail center and the contact email account they listed in their application to be sure that there is not an offer of award that they simply missed.

Likewise, if you have not heard anything about your grant application and the person who prepared the application is no longer with your department, contact the AFG program office for assistance.

As predictable as the changing seasons, there will always be grant applications that slip from the notification radar. It's better to check all avenues rather than buy into the "summer never ends" grant award rumor mill.